Democracy Now!

Joe Biden Unveils $1.9 Trillion Coronavirus and Economic Relief Package, U.S. on Pace to Top 400,000 COVID-19 Deaths by Inauguration Day as Unemployment Surges, Dozens of Capitol Rioters Were on FBI Terrorism Watch List, QAnon Insurrectionist Jacob Chansley, Who Threatened VP Pence, Seeks Trump Pardon, NY Rep. Adriano Espaillat Tests Positive for Coronavirus After Receiving 2nd Dose of Vaccine, Hospitals in Brazil's Amazonas Run Out of Oxygen as Fears of Variant Trigger Travel Bans, 2020 Was Hottest Year on Earth, Bringing Record Fires, Heat Waves and Extreme Weather, Yemen's Humanitarian Disaster Set to Worsen as U.S. Moves to Label Houthis as Terrorists, Michigan Ex-Gov. Rick Snyder, 8 Top Ex-Officials Charged over Flint Water Crisis, DOJ Inspector General Report Details How Trump and Allies Pushed to Separate Families, ICE's Acting Director Resigns After Two Weeks on Job, Caravan Departs Honduras, Fleeing Economic Crises and Hurricane Devastation, Report Says ICE Failed to Provide Basic Coronavirus Protections, Threatened Prisoners, New York Attorney General Sues NYPD for Abuses During 2020's BLM Uprising, The Intercept Co-Founder & Oscar Winner Laura Poitras Says She Was Fired by First Look Media

As the United States breaks all records for coronavirus cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns another 92,000 could die in the next three weeks as complaints grow over the slow distribution of COVID vaccines. Across the country, hospitals are overflowing, and ICU beds are in short supply. In Los Angeles County, an epicenter of the outbreak, a staggering one in three residents has gotten the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, according to new data. For more on the pandemic, we speak with epidemiologist Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's College of Public Health and the former director of the CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, where he oversaw the Strategic National Stockpile. He says that despite the grim statistics in the United States, other countries with more proactive pandemic responses have shown that it is possible to bring the virus under control and largely return to normal life. "We can do that same thing here in the United States if we use good science," he says.

We look at the fight for accountability after a white supremacist mob attacked the U.S. Capitol and as President Trump is impeached for a historic second time for his incitement of violence. Supporters who took part in the January 6 attack — including current police officers — have been arrested across the U.S. for their involvement in the insurrection. Ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration, the FBI is warning police chiefs around the country to be on high alert for right-wing domestic terror attacks. The Pentagon said it's increasing the number of National Guard soldiers deployed to the nation's capital to 20,000 — twice the combined number of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan — in stark contrast to the response to last week's riot. "The impeachment yesterday is a culmination of sorts of the kind of violence and racism that has been at the heart of the Trump administration that finally boiled over," says Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, assistant professor of African American studies at Princeton University and contributing writer at The New Yorker magazine. "We have a government that has completely spun out of control at the hands of Donald Trump."

The House of Representatives has voted to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, and Trump will end his term in office with the distinction of being the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans joined Democrats in the 232-197 vote to impeach, and Trump now faces a trial in the Senate. Constitutional attorney John Bonifaz says the House "did its duty" and that the Senate must move quickly to take up impeachment proceedings. "Those who did not vote to convict last time are responsible, in part, for allowing this president to stay in office, someone who has clearly abused his power time and time again, leading to this violent attack on the U.S. Capitol," says Bonifaz, co-founder and president of Free Speech for People.

Donald Trump Impeached for Second Time After Inciting Insurrection at U.S. Capitol, More Capitol Insurrectionists Arrested as FBI Warns of Continued Domestic Terror Threat, 20,000 National Guard Troops Deploy to Washington, D.C., for Inauguration, Democrats Demand Probe into Whether GOP Lawmakers Helped Rioters Scope Out Capitol, Trump Claims to Oppose Violence, One Week After Telling Insurrectionists "We Love You", Trump Tells Aides Not to Pay Giuliani's Legal Fees as Bid to Overturn Election Fails, Trump and Allies Sanctioned by Growing List of Corporations, J&J Vaccine Trials Show Promise as CDC Predicts 92,000 More U.S. Deaths in Next 3 Weeks, Husbands of Reps. Jayapal and Pressley Test Positive for COVID-19 After Capitol Siege, WHO Officials Arrive in Wuhan; Switzerland to Vote on Restrictions; Peru Health Workers Strike, U.S. Bans Cotton and Tomatoes from Xinjiang Citing Forced Uyghur Labor, Hong Kong Arrests 11 More People as HRW Blasts Rights Violations in China and U.S., Ugandans Go to Polls Amid Violence and Crackdown on Opposition, Census Bureau Stops Separately Counting Undocumented People, Ending Trump's Racist Policy, SCOTUS Makes It Harder to Get Abortion Pill During Pandemic

As Los Angeles County reports record COVID-19 infections, overflowing hospitals and record death tolls, we look at how Indigenous communities there are among the hardest hit in working-class neighborhoods, where many are essential workers. "Indigenous people, we don't have the privilege to stay home and not go to work," says Odilia Romero, co-founder and executive director of Indigenous Communities in Leadership, or CIELO, an Indigenous women-led nonprofit organization in Los Angeles. Romero also laments "the loss of knowledge" that comes with the devastation of COVID-19. "Some of the elders have passed away, and there goes a whole worldview," she says. CIELO recently published a book documenting the stories of undocumented Indigenous women from Mexico and Guatemala living in Los Angeles in the midst of the pandemic.

As the House votes to impeach President Trump, the FBI warns there could be a repeat of the violent insurrection he encouraged on January 6, with Trump loyalists planning to hold armed protests nationwide ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration. We speak with Timothy Snyder, a historian of fascism, who says the riot at the U.S. Capitol was "completely and utterly predictable" given President Trump's record of stoking extremism and undermining democratic institutions. "The American republic is hanging by a thread because the president of the United States has sought to use violence to stay in power and essentially to overthrow our constitutional system," says Snyder.

House to Impeach Trump as GOP Shows Signs of Backing Removal, FBI Warned of "War" Ahead of U.S. Capitol Assault as Military Issues Joint Condemnation, 3rd Lawmaker Tests Positive for COVID-19 After Insurrection as Dems Call Out GOP Links to Riot, Law Enforcement Probes Officers Involved in Capitol Riot as FBI Warns of Armed Action in Coming Days, U.S. Gov't Executes Lisa Montgomery After SCOTUS Sides with Trump, CDC Expands Vaccine Eligibility, Will Start Requiring International Travelers to Test COVID-Negative, India Delivers Vaccine; Malaysia Suspends Parliament; Israel Won't Vaccinate Medical Workers in OPT, Mike Pompeo Claims al-Qaeda's New Home Base Is Iran, Offers No Evidence, India's Top Court Stays Controversial Farm Laws Which Spurred Historic Protests, Irish Report Finds 9,000 Babies and Children Died in Homes Run by Catholic Church Amid Mass Abuse, Nigerian Authorities Release Activist Omoyele Sowore After Arrest at Peaceful Protest, Former Alibaba Delivery Driver Who Set Himself on Fire Fuels Criticism of Gig Economy in China, SEIU and Ride-Hailing Drivers Petition CA Supreme Court to Overturn Prop 22, Michigan Ex-Governor Charged over Flint Water Crisis, Billionaire Casino Magnate, Republican Party and Israel Megadonor Sheldon Adelson Dies

A federal judge has granted a stay of execution for Lisa Montgomery, who was set to become the first woman executed by the federal government in 67 years, but the Trump administration is appealing the decision. Two men are also scheduled to die this week. Since July, when the Trump administration revived the federal death penalty, the U.S. government has executed 10 people — more than in any presidency since 1896. "Time is running out for the Trump administration to go through with these three executions, and they know that, which is why they're very insistent that they happen this week and not after January 20," says Isaac Arnsdorf, a reporter at ProPublica. We also speak with Sister Helen Prejean, Catholic nun and one of the world's leading death penalty opponents, who says Trump embarked on his late killing spree simply because "he has the power to do it." "The death penalty needs to be abolished completely, and you have to take the power out of individuals' hands," she says.

Democrats in Congress are pushing ahead with impeachment following the violent insurrection that killed five people at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The single article of impeachment against President Trump cites his incitement of insurrection and accuses him of subverting and obstructing the certification of the 2020 election. This comes as authorities are warning of more right-wing violence around Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, with possible armed far-right protests planned at all 50 state capitols as well as the U.S. Capitol. We speak with Walden Bello, an acclaimed sociologist, academic, environmentalist and activist, whose latest column argues the United States has entered a "Weimar Era," in which democratic elections are increasingly delegitimized as street violence becomes the norm. "This is not something that's unusual that has happened in the Capitol. Right-wing groups, when they begin to lose electorally, … they resort to the streets and to violence in order to stop that process," says Bello.

House Prepares 2nd Impeachment of Donald Trump Unless Pence Removes Him from Power, FBI Warns of "Armed Protests" in All 50 States and at Biden's Inauguration, WaPo: Trump, Busy Watching TV for Hours, Ignored Pleas to Call Off Mob During Capitol Assault, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Resigns Amid Warnings over Domestic Terror Threats, Capitol Hill Pipe Bomb Case Remains Unsolved as Capitol Police Suspend Officers Who Supported Attackers, U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Average More Than 3,000 Per Day, Lawmakers Catch COVID-19 After Sheltering in Room Where GOP Reps Refused Masks, Pfizer to Boost COVID-19 Vaccine Output as WHO Warns of Vaccination Inequality, COVID-19 Surges in Southern Africa; Portugal's President Tests Positive for Coronavirus, Trump Administration Puts Cuba Back on List of State Sponsors of Terrorism, Guantánamo Bay Prison Starts 20th Year of Indefinite Detentions, B'Tselem Blasts "Apartheid Regime" as Israel Greenlights Construction of More Illegal Settlements, South Korean Court Orders Japan to Compensate Women Forced into Sex Slavery, Federal Court Halts Execution of Lisa Montgomery, Only Woman on Federal Death Row, Colorado AG Opens Grand Jury Probe of Police Killing of Elijah McClain, Asylum Seekers Shelter in Abandoned Bosnian Buildings Amid Severe Winter Cold

Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies have removed President Trump from their platforms, after years of debate about the disinformation he shared to millions of followers from his accounts. While many are applauding the bans, author Chris Hedges warns they could backfire. "To allow these companies to essentially function as de facto platforms for censorship and manipulation … harkens back to the way civil liberties were eviscerated in the wake of 9/11," says Hedges. "It's always, in the end, the left that pays for this kind of censorship." We also speak with UCLA professor Ramesh Srinivasan, director of the Digital Cultures Lab, who says Big Tech allowed right-wing extremism to flourish for years before acting and that lawmakers need to enact robust regulation. "All of these technology platforms, powered by their hidden algorithms that are indeed opaque, thrive on the amplification of polarization," says Srinivasan. "It is incredible how much power we have given to a very small number of people who are essentially mediating pretty much every aspect of our lives."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is threatening to begin new impeachment hearings against President Trump if Vice President Mike Pence doesn't invoke the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to remove Trump from office for inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol. Calls are also growing for Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to be expelled or to resign for supporting Trump's effort to overturn the election and fanning the flames ahead of last week's insurrection, and authorities are warning about more right-wing violence ahead of Inauguration Day on January 20. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University historian whose work focuses on fascism, authoritarian leaders and propaganda, says the storming of the Capitol was "a logical result" of Trump's legitimization and encouragement of right-wing extremism since 2016. "The threat to democracy is not outside our institutions only. It's coming from inside," Ben-Ghiat says.

House Democrats Set to Impeach Trump If Mike Pence Refuses to Invoke 25th Amendment, Twitter Permanently Bans Trump's Account as Big Tech Distances Itself from Trump, Far Right, Authorities Make More Arrests Following Domestic Terror Attack at U.S. Capitol, Brian Sicknick, Capitol Police Officer Killed in Coup Attempt, Was Antiwar Trump Supporter, U.S. Records Highest Daily COVID-19 Case Count as Biden Vows to Release All Available Vaccines, Global Cases Surge as London Declares Major Incident, Japan IDs New Variant, and Iran Bans U.S., U.K. Vaccines, U.S. Prosecutors Say Honduran President Hernández Took Bribes from Drug Traffickers, Over 60 People Feared Dead After Indonesia Plane Crash, U.S. to Designate Yemen's Houthis as Terrorist Group, Sadyr Japarov Wins Kyrgyz Election, Months After He Was Sprung Free from Jail, Women Accounted for All of 140,000 Net Jobs Shed by U.S. Economy in December, Biden to Nominate William Burns, Who Helped Negotiate Iran Nuclear Deal, as CIA Chief, New Details Emerge of Trump's Attempts to Overturn Georgia Election Results, Death Penalty Opponents Fight to Halt Trump's Killing Spree in Final Days of Presidency

As Florida sets new records for daily coronavirus cases, we speak with a whistleblower who was fired in May from the Florida Department of Health after she refused to censor information about the state's COVID-19 outbreak. Rebekah Jones is a data scientist who helped build Florida's coronavirus tracking dashboard, and she says her termination came after she refused to manipulate data to support the state's reopening. In December, police raided Jones's home in Tallahassee, seizing her computer and phone and holding her family at gunpoint, as part of an alleged investigation into a hacking of the Florida Health Department's website. Jones says she had not had access to the website for many months and that the raid was in retaliation for speaking out. "The state has been dodging releasing information at every opportunity," says Jones, who now runs the independent coronavirus data portal Florida COVID Action.

As the United States reports record COVID-19 deaths, Florida broke the record for the highest single-day increase in new cases Thursday. Across the state, long lines to get vaccinations against COVID-19 left senior citizens camping in their cars overnight in cold weather, after Governor Ron DeSantis lowered the priority age to 65, 10 years below the CDC recommended age of 75. Those aged 79 and older are reportedly four times as likely to die from COVID. We speak with John and Maria Luisa Schoch, aged 79 and 80, as they enter their second day in line waiting for shots.

Joe Biden has formally nominated Merrick Garland for attorney general. Garland has served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for over two decades and previously worked at the Justice Department, where he prosecuted the Oklahoma City bombing case. President Obama nominated Garland in 2016 to serve on the Supreme Court, but the nomination stalled after Republican senators refused to put it up for a vote. Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation, says Garland is an "underwhelming" pick, given his judicial record. "People need to remember that Garland was picked for the Supreme Court because he was a compromise candidate," says Mystal. "This is a centrist jurist who has a history — a troubling history, to me — of being deferential to police and being unwilling to hold police accountable for acts of brutality and misconduct."

Calls are growing for President Trump to resign or be removed from office after he incited supporters to storm the Capitol in an act of insurrection to disrupt the counting of Electoral College votes. The unrest left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer who was reportedly struck in the head by a fire extinguisher. Trump is losing support from his inner circle, with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao both resigning before the end of Trump's term. The chief of the Capitol Police is also expected to resign next week, as multiple reports reveal police officers aiding rioters, from removing barricades to giving out direction to the offices of specific lawmakers. Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna says Republicans must support efforts to remove Trump, especially as much of Trump's incitement targeted Republican lawmakers who refused to back his false claims of election fraud. "This was not an attack just on Democratic lawmakers. If anything, it was an incitement of violence against Republican lawmakers," says Khanna.

U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Top 4,000 in New Daily World Record, Trump Pledges Orderly Transition of Power, One Day After Inciting Insurrection at Capitol, Nancy Pelosi Says House May Vote on Impeachment Unless VP Pence Removes Trump from Power, Mob Unleashed by Trump Kills Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick , Federal Prosecutor Won't Rule Out Charges Against Trump for Inciting Riot at U.S. Capitol, Violent Mob of Trump Supporters Attacks Black Woman in Los Angeles, Public Health Officials Warn Insurrection in D.C. Was Likely Superspreader Event, South Africa Overwhelmed by COVID-19 Surge; Brazil Deaths Top 200,000; Japan Declares Emergency , Iraqi Court Issues Arrest Warrant for Trump over Killing of Top Militia Chief, Biden Taps Marty Walsh for Labor Sec, Gina Raimondo for Commerce, Isabel Guzman for Small Business Admin, Elaine Chao and Betsy DeVos Join Other Trump Allies in Resigning Following Storming of Capitol, Boeing Reaches $2.5 Billion Settlement in Federal Investigation into Two 737 MAX Crashes , Ex-Security Head of Canadian Mine in Guatemala Convicted of Murdering Indigenous Leader Adolfo Ich

World leaders reacted in horror over the storming of the U.S. Capitol, with the U.N. secretary-general calling on political leaders to demand their followers refrain from violence. Leaders of the U.K., New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, France, Germany, NATO and the European Council called for a peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden. Investigative journalist Allan Nairn looks at what steps Trump may take next, and says despite protestations from President-elect Joe Biden and others that the insurrection was "not who we are," the U.S. has a long track record of disrupting democratic processes elsewhere. "What has shaken the U.S. population so badly, this assault on the Capitol yesterday, is really nothing by comparison to what U.S. operations have done in Latin America, in Asia, in Africa, in the Middle East, to other democratic movements and elected governments over the years," says Nairn.

As Washington reels from the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob intent on overturning the 2020 election results, lawmakers are considering new impeachment proceedings against President Trump for fomenting the insurrection. Civil War and Reconstruction historian Manisha Sinha says this isn’t the first attempt to disrupt the democratic process by right-wing white domestic terrorists, citing the 1898 Wilmington coup and other efforts before that throughout the Southern states. "These groups today remind me of those people," says Sinha. In response to the call to invoke the 25th Amendment against Donald Trump, she argues, "This is an awful portent for our democracy, and we need to respond forcefully to it."

The U.S. Congress has certified President-elect Joe Biden's victory, hours after a violent, right-wing mob incited by President Trump interrupted proceedings and stormed the U.S. Capitol. Four people died during the chaos, which has been described as an attempted coup. The insurrection was the culmination of months of lies by President Trump, widely repeated in right-wing media and on social media platforms, that the 2020 presidential election was rigged for Joe Biden. At a rally Wednesday, Trump urged supporters to head to the Capitol, who later broke through barriers and lines of police outside the Capitol and made their way inside, where they ransacked offices and sent lawmakers scrambling. Bree Newsome Bass, an antiracist activist, artist and housing rights advocate arrested in 2015 after she tore down the Confederate flag at the South Carolina state Capitol, says it's impossible not to note "the obvious difference in terms of how police have a coordinated, overtly militarized response to any kind of protest that is challenging racism in policing or racism in the government versus what we witnessed yesterday" in Washington, D.C. "It is very clear that the primary function of police forces in the United States is to enforce racism above enforcing public safety."

Violent Mob Incited by Trump Launches Failed Coup at U.S. Capitol, Capitol Police Fail to Stop Insurrection as Video Shows Officers Stepping Aside, Posing for Selfies, Joe Biden's Presidential Win Certified Over Objections of 127 Republican Lawmakers, House Lawmakers Seek Immediate Removal of Trump from Office, String of White House Resignations Follow Violent Storming of U.S. Capitol, Twitter and Facebook Temporarily Lock Trump's Accounts After Assault on Capitol, World Looks On in Horror at Trump-Incited Coup Attempt; Leaders Call for Peaceful Transition, Jon Ossoff Vows to Fight to End the Pandemic as Democrats Sweep Georgia Elections, U.S. Hospitalizations Hit New High as Nearly 4,000 Die of COVID-19 on Wednesday, Joe Biden Nominates Merrick Garland for Attorney General, Louisville Police Formally Terminate Two Officers Involved in Breonna Taylor's Killing, Governor Pritzker Condemns Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller for Praising Hitler, D.C. Police Chief Warns GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert Against Carrying Her Gun to Congress, LeBron James May Buy WNBA's Atlanta Dream from Outgoing Sen. Kelly Loeffler

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, District Attorney Michael Graveley has announced that no charges will be filed against the white police officer who fired seven shots at Jacob Blake, paralyzing the 29-year-old Black man in August. Officer Rusten Sheskey fired the shots at point-blank range into Blake's back as he leaned into his car, with his three children, aged 3, 5 and 8, inside the vehicle. Prosecutors maintain the shooting was in self-defense because Blake had a small knife in the car. Video of Blake's shooting sparked an uprising in Kenosha in August against systemic racism and police brutality. Blake's family denounced the ruling. "In this situation, again, we see a miscarriage of justice," says Wisconsin state Representative David Bowen. "We do not see a DA that is able to charge an officer who uses his discretion to put seven shots in the back of a Black man."

Thousands who refuse to accept President Trump's 2020 election loss to Joe Biden are protesting in Washington, D.C., as Congress meets to count the Electoral College votes and certify the results. Mayor Muriel Bowser has called in the National Guard ahead of the protests, after anti-democracy protesters clashed with police near Black Lives Matter Plaza. Police arrested six people on charges that include bringing illegal guns to the city. National security reporter William Arkin says it is "an unprecedented moment," with the sitting president actively encouraging the unrest. We also speak with Jason Wilson, an investigative journalist who tracks the political right and extremist movements, who says the Trump presidency has seen a startling merger of the GOP with the far right. "There's not really a sharp dividing line between violent, far-right street activists and the supporters of the president in Congress," says Wilson.

Democrats appear on the brink of taking control of the U.S. Senate after Reverend Raphael Warnock won a special election over Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, while Democrat Jon Ossoff has a slim lead in his runoff against Republican Senator David Perdue. If Ossoff wins his race, the Senate will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote, giving Democrats more power to pass President-elect Joe Biden's legislative agenda. Reverend Warnock, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which was the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., will become the first Black Democrat to ever represent a Southern state, as well as the first Black senator from Georgia and just the 11th Black senator in U.S. history. We speak with Anoa Changa, an Atlanta-based journalist who covers electoral justice and voting rights, who says the Democratic victory in the state is down to grassroots organizers. "Organizing and the amazing work that has been done by a broad coalition of multiracial, mutliethnic organizers across the entire state, from rural to urban to suburban communities, really is the true story of what has been happening in Georgia," says Changa.

Senate Control Within Democrats' Reach as Rev. Warnock Beats Loeffler, Jon Ossoff Leads Over Perdue, Congress to Certify Biden's Win as GOP Plans Challenges, Delay to Proceedings, U.S. Records Record Death Toll as States Ramp Up Vaccination Plans, Nebraska Gov. Ricketts Under Fire for Racist Exclusion of Undocumented Workers in Vaccine Rollout, Up to 1 in 50 U.K. Residents Likely Have the Coronavirus, U.K. Judge Denies Bail for Julian Assange, Days After Rejecting U.S. Extradition Bid, Officials Will Not Charge White Officer Who Shot Jacob Blake in Back, Leaving Him Paralyzed, Iran Issues Interpol Arrest Warrant Request for Trump Amid Mounting Tensions, Hong Kong Arrests 50+ Pro-Democracy Figures in Massive Sweep, Qatar Reestablishes Ties with Saudi Arabia and Other Arab Nations, Ending 3-Year Embargo, EPA Limits Science That Can Be Used in Public Health Policies as Interior Dept. Weakens Bird Protections, Trump Admin Starts Selling Drilling Rights in Pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, DOJ Seeks to Roll Back Protections Against Civil Rights Discrimination, PA GOP State Senators Create Chaos as They Refuse to Seat Elected Democratic Lawmaker, 140 ICE Prisoners on Hunger Strike in NJ, Activists Demand Joe Biden Cancel Student Debt: "We Will No Longer Be Shackled"

Israel has administered COVID-19 vaccines faster than any country in the world, with more than 14% of Israelis receiving vaccines so far. Despite the fast rollout, human rights groups are expressing alarm over Israel's decision not to vaccinate Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, where about 1,500 people have died during the pandemic. Israel has defended its actions citing the Oslo Peace Accords, which put Palestinian authorities in charge of healthcare in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian officials are facing a number of hurdles in launching their own vaccine campaign, including a shortage of money, lack of access to vaccines and lack of infrastructure to distribute a vaccine. "Israel actually is violating international law because it is denying its responsibility as an occupying power," says Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a physician, member of the Palestinian Parliament and head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. "Israelis are getting the vaccines, and Palestinians are getting nothing."

As voters in Georgia cast their ballots in two key runoff races that will determine control of the U.S. Senate, voting rights activists fear many eligible voters will be turned away at the polls. Georgia has been called "ground zero" for Republican voter suppression efforts in the U.S., and in September the ACLU of Georgia revealed 198,000 voters had been wrongly purged from the voting rolls. We air a report into voting in Georgia by investigative journalist Greg Palast, narrated by the actress Debra Messing, and speak with voting rights activist LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund. "I think it's quite interesting and coincidental … that many of them on that list are African American voters," says Brown. "This is voter suppression."

As thousands are expected to descend on Washington, D.C., to join far-right protests over the election results Wednesday, the leader of the Proud Boys hate group, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested on property destruction charges for burning a Black Lives Matter banner off a historically Black church during similar protests last month. Many churches have requested extra protection, and the Metropolitan AME Church is suing the Proud Boys. "Sadly, our nation has a very dark and sordid history of targeting historically Black churches," says Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who represents the church in its lawsuit. "We will use civil rights law as a way of sending a message to extremists that they are not above the law and will be held accountable for their dangerous, toxic and dark actions."

At a campaign rally for the two critical Senate runoff races in Georgia, President Trump used much of the time to focus on himself and again dispute the outcome of November's presidential election. In a rambling speech, Trump cited the same conspiracy theories he used to pressure Georgia's secretary of state in a recorded telephone call to "find" him enough votes to overturn the state's certified election results. Democrats say Trump could be prosecuted for illegally trying to pressure Georgia officials to commit voter fraud, while some Republicans are defending the call. "It is most unfortunate that there are members of Congress in both the House and Senate that are planning to … do grandstanding, frankly, to continue this kind of false and baseless claim that there was something wrong with the 2020 election," says Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She says that for lawmakers to "perpetuate this mythology about irregularities in our election is incredibly un-American."

Medics Ordered to Ration Oxygen as COVID-19 Overwhelms L.A. Hospitals, FDA Recommends U.S. Residents Get 2 Full Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine, U.K. Orders Third Nationwide Lockdown Amid Fears of New Coronavirus Variant, Polls Open in Georgia Special Election with Control of U.S. Senate at Stake, House Democrats Prepare to Censure Trump over Attempt to Overturn Election Results, D.C. Mayor Calls Out National Guard as Trump Supporters Plan Anti-Democracy Rally, Proud Boys Leader Arrested for Illegal Weapons, Destroying Black Lives Matter Banner, Iran Begins Enriching Uranium Beyond Limits of Nuclear Deal Trump Withdrew From, Newly Unionized Workers Demand Google Promote Social & Economic Justice, Some Chicago Teachers Refuse to Return to Classrooms over Coronavirus Safety Fears, Western Shoshone Environmental & Land Rights Activist Carrie Dann Dies at 88

In an hour-long phone call, President Trump pressured Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the state's 2020 election. He made the call nearly two weeks before he is due to leave office and just two days before the runoff elections in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate. The Washington Post obtained a recording of the phone call of Trump both berating and begging Raffensperger, and even threatening him with criminal charges if he refused to investigate false claims of voter fraud and change the certified election results. "It's astounding," says Nsé Ufot, CEO of New Georgia Project and New Georgia Project Action Fund, organizations that played a key role in mobilizing voters for the 2020 election, and again for Tuesday's runoff elections. "This has to be criminal."

In a stunning decision, a British judge has blocked the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, saying he would not be safe in a U.S. prison due to his deteriorated mental state. In 2019, Assange was indicted in the United States on 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The United States has already announced plans to appeal the ruling. Press freedom advocates have campaigned against Assange's prosecution for years, arguing it would set a dangerous precedent for prosecuting journalists. The blocked extradition due to concern over prison safety rather than press freedom shows that "this is not the end of the road," says Assange legal adviser Jennifer Robinson. "This is still a terrible precedent." We also speak with Jameel Jaffer, founding director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, who says that while the decision is a "very significant victory" for Assange, the judge has largely sided with the U.S. prosecution.

U.K. Blocks Extradition of Julian Assange to U.S. Due to Mental Health Concerns, Trump Attempts to Pressure Georgia's Top Election Official into Changing Results of Vote, GOP Lawmakers to Challenge Certification of Biden's Win in Last-Ditch Effort to Overturn Election, 117th Congress Sworn In Amid Pandemic, Pelosi Reelected as House Speaker, U.S. COVID Cases Soar as New Spikes Expected After Holidays and Detection of More Contagious Variant, India Approves 2 Vaccines as U.K. Starts Administering Oxford-AstraZeneca Shot, Israel Vaccinates Over One-Tenth of Population, But Palestinians in Occupied Territories Left Out of Rollout, Massive Blast at Yemen's Aden Airport Kills at Least 26 People, Fifth Afghan Media Worker Killed in Under Two Months, Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Attack on Miners in Balochistan Region of Pakistan, Iraqis Protest on Anniversary of Soleimani's Assassination as Iran Warns U.S. May Be Planning Attack, Journalist and Activist Omoyele Sowore Beaten and Arrested in Nigeria After Peaceful Protest, Police Killing of Somali American Dolal Idd Prompts New Black Lives Matter Protests in Minneapolis, Court Reinstates Jan. 12 Execution of Lisa Montgomery, the Only Woman on Federal Death Row, "Most Prolific Serial Killer in U.S. History," Who Targeted Poor and Marginalized Black Women, Dies, Two Female U.S. Army Soldiers Found Dead in Texas, Census Bureau Misses Deadline, Upending Trump's Plans to Exclude Immigrants from 2020 Count

We continue our conversation with medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer, whose new book, "Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds," tells the story of his efforts to fight Ebola in 2014 and how the history of slavery, colonialism and violence in West Africa exacerbated the outbreak. "Care for Ebola is not rocket science," says Dr. Farmer, who notes that doctors know how to treat sick patients. But the public health response was overwhelmingly focused not on care but containment, Dr. Farmer says, which "generated very painful echoes from colonial rule."

As the United States sets records for COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations, we speak with one of the world's leading experts on infectious diseases, Dr. Paul Farmer, who says the devastating death toll in the U.S. reflects decades of underinvestment in public health and centuries of social inequality. "All the social pathologies of our nation come to the fore during epidemics," says Dr. Farmer, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, chair of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder and chief strategist of Partners in Health.

While the United States, Britain and other wealthy countries race to vaccinate their populations against the coronavirus, a new report finds that as much as 90% of the population in dozens of poorer countries could be forced to wait until at least 2022 because wealthy countries are hoarding so much of the vaccine supply. A growing movement is calling for the development of a people's vaccine and the suspension of intellectual property rights to expand access. We speak with Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni, a policy adviser to the People's Vaccine Alliance, and Achal Prabhala, a public health advocate and coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa.

As President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris prepare to take power, we continue to look at the growing debate over the direction of the Democratic Party. House Majority Whip James Clyburn recently criticized calls to "defund the police" and argued the phrase hurt Democratic congressional candidates. "It is actually insane that we would think the way to respond to the scale of problems that we confront as a nation is to harken back to an older form of politics that … seems to try to triangulate and appeal to this Reagan Democrat that they are so obsessed with," responds Eddie Glaude, author and chair of Princeton University's Department of African American Studies. "It makes no sense that we would go back to the politics that produced Trump in the first place." We also speak to artist and antiracist activist Bree Newsome Bass, who argues Black voters "are scapegoated when it's convenient, and then we are thrown under the bus when it's convenient. … That's a dynamic that has to end."

Scholars Cornel West and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor respond to the global uprising against racism and police violence following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. "We're seeing the convergence of a class rebellion with racism and racial terrorism at the center of it," said Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. "And in many ways, we are in uncharted territory in the United States."

In a Democracy Now! special, we revisit our June 2020 interview with the legendary activist and scholar Angela Davis about the uprising against police brutality and racism launched in May after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The protests have helped dramatically shift public opinion on policing and systemic racism, as "defund the police" became a rallying cry of the movement. Davis is professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For half a century, she has been one of the most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States and an icon of the Black liberation movement.

In a historic step, The Kansas City Star, one of the most influential newspapers in the Midwest, has apologized for the paper's racist history. The paper's top editor, Mike Fannin, admitted the Star and a sister paper had reinforced segregation, Jim Crow laws and redlining, and "robbed an entire community of opportunity, dignity, justice and recognition" with its biased coverage over many decades. We speak with Fannin and Mará Rose Williams, a longtime education writer at the paper who led the effort to examine the newspaper's coverage of the Black community following the police killing of George Floyd and the nationwide racial justice uprising this year. "Mainstream newspapers across the country, not just The Kansas City Star, have not done a good job of covering the Black community," says Williams.

When Black doctor Susan Moore died from COVID-19 after posting a video from her hospital bed describing racist treatment by medical staff, her chilling message was compared to the video of George Floyd begging for his life as he was killed by Minneapolis police. We speak to two leading Black women doctors fighting racial disparities in healthcare who wrote The Washington Post opinion piece, "Say her name: Dr. Susan Moore." "It is a typical and ongoing devaluation of our lives and distrust of our word," says Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, a family physician and former president of the American Public Health Association. Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative, says Dr. Moore's complaints about being disrespected by medical staff are "really familiar" to her. "We've found that Black patients, Black birthing people are not valued; they're not listened to," she says.


As the United States reports record deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19 in the final days of 2020, we look at how the pandemic that ravaged the country this year has shone a stark new light on racism in medical care. In a viral video recorded by Black physician Dr. Susan Moore, she describes racist treatment by medical staff at a hospital in Indianapolis and says they did not respond to her pleas for care, despite being in intense pain and being a doctor herself. In the video, Dr. Moore says she had to beg to receive pain medication and the antiviral drug remdesivir, and accuses a doctor at Indiana University Health North Hospital of ignoring her pleas because she was Black. "I put forth, and I maintain: If I was white, I wouldn't have to go through that," she says. Dr. Moore died December 20, just over two weeks after she posted the video. She was 54 years old.

McConnell Blocks Move to Up Stimulus Checks to $2,000; Progressive Senators Plan Filibuster on NDAA Veto, U.S. Reports Record Deaths and Hospitalizations as New COVID Variant Identified in Colorado, COVID-19 Ravages U.S. Prisons; Cases Four Times Higher Among Prisoners, Biden Slams Slow Rollout of Vaccination, Reiterates Plan for Mask Mandate, U.K. Approves Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as Cases Surge; Germany, South Korea Report Record Deaths, WHO Warns COVID-19 Is Not Necessarily "The Big One", Argentina Legalizes Abortion in Historic, Long-Fought-For Vote, China Sentences Hong Kong Activists Who Fled by Boat to Up to 3 Years; Tony Chung Gets 4 Months for Protest, At Least 15 People Feared Dead in Papua New Guinea After Landslide at Informal Gold Mine, Bangladesh Moves Second Group of Rohingya Refugees to Remote Island Amid Fears of Coercion, Magnitude 6.4 Earthquake in Croatia Kills at Least 7 People, Cuts Power and Water for 10,000s, Two More Louisville Officers Terminated over Police Killing of Breonna Taylor, DOJ Will Not Pursue Criminal Charges Against Officers Who Killed 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice in 2014, Boston Statue of Enslaved Man at Lincoln's Feet Removed After Intense Pressure, Kansas City Star Apologizes for Its Racist History, Nashville Bomber's Girlfriend Reported He Was Making Bombs Over One Year Before Christmas Day Blast, New Info About GA Sen. Kelly Loeffler's Conflicts of Interest Emerge as She Heads to Runoff Next Week, Boeing 737 MAX Makes Its First U.S. Commercial Flight After Being Grounded Since March 2019

The House of Representatives has voted to approve a measure that would increase stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000, sending the bill to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has said he will filibuster to delay an override on President Trump's veto of this year's $740 billion defense spending bill unless the Senate also holds a vote on the $2,000 checks. At least 12 Republicans would need to join with the Senate's 48 Democrats to reach the necessary 60 votes to approve the increased payments. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is standing in the way of not just expanded stimulus payments, but a whole range of policies he has refused to bring to the floor of the Senate. "We think of ourselves as a democracy, but this one person has blocked the ability of the Senate to go on record of saying whether they're for or against a whole variety of measures that large numbers of Americans think are important," Stiglitz says. He also discusses the global economic crisis.

President Trump's pardon of four former Blackwater contractors has sparked outrage in Iraq and in the United States. Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted in the killing of 14 Iraqis in 2007, when contractors for the mercenary firm opened fire on civilians in Baghdad's Nisoor Square. The four Blackwater guards were convicted in 2014 after years of painstaking work by investigators and prosecutors to address one of the most infamous chapters of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Paul Dickinson, who was the lawyer for several victims of the Blackwater massacre, says Trump's pardons are a fresh insult to Iraqis who lost loved ones and who were promised justice would be served. "Now, after the promises that we made to each one of these victims that we were going to hold people accountable for their criminal actions abroad, that has been taken away from them," he says.

President Trump's pardon of four former Blackwater contractors convicted for their role in a massacre in Baghdad has sparked outrage in Iraq. The Blackwater guards include Nicholas Slatten, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when he and other Blackwater mercenaries opened fire with machine guns and grenades on a crowded public space in Baghdad, killing 17 unarmed civilians, including women and children. The youngest victim was a 9-year-old named Ali Kinani. We re-broadcast clips from a short documentary, "Blackwater's Youngest Victim," by The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill and filmmaker Rick Rowley, that first aired on Democracy Now! in 2010.

Bernie Sanders Promises Filibuster of Pentagon Bill Unless Senate Votes on $2,000 Stimulus Checks, U.S. COVID-19 Hospitalizations Hit Record High as California Hospitals Ration Care, Russia Admits COVID-19 Death Toll More Than Three Times Higher Than Reported, Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão Tests Positive for Coronavirus, Colombia Vaccination Program to Exclude Undocumented Venezuelans, Joe Biden Says Trump Administration Is Obstructing His Transition Team, Texas GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert Sues VP Pence in Long-Shot Bid to Overturn Biden's Win, U.S. to Open Consulate in Western Sahara After Recognizing Morocco's Claim on the Territory, Honduran Indigenous Environmentalist Félix Vásquez Assassinated in Front of Family, Columbus, OH, Police Officer Adam Coy Fired over Killing of Andre Hill, New York State Bans Most Evictions Until May as Tenants Struggle Amid Pandemic, Minnesota Water Protector Arrested in Nonviolent Direct Action Against Line 3 Pipeline

Dozens of immigrant women detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia have joined a class-action lawsuit against ICE over allegations they were subjected to nonconsensual and invasive gynecological procedures and surgeries that were later found to be unnecessary, and in some cases left them unable to have children. The lawsuit cites sworn testimony from at least 35 women about their treatment by Mahendra Amin, a physician in Ocilla, Georgia, and describes retaliation and threats of deportation for speaking out. "We have more than 40 women who filed sworn testimony in court despite consistent attempts by ICE to silence them," says Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director at Project South and co-counsel for women at Irwin who say they were subjected to these procedures. We also speak with two women who say they underwent unnecessary medical procedures: Wendy Dowe, who was deported to Jamaica after she says her fallopian tubes were removed without her consent, and Elizabeth, who is detained at the Irwin County ICE jail and who says she faced retaliation for speaking up about her unnecessary medical treatment.